American national gets seven-year term over 2009 ISI office bombing in Lahore

WASHINGTON (Webdesk) - An American national who gave money to a suicide bomber who attacked a headquarters of Pakistan’s intelligence service was sentenced to more than seven years in prison Friday, prosecutors said. Reaz Qadir Khan, 51, a naturalised US citizen living in Portland, Oregon had previously pleaded guilty in a US court to providing material support to terrorists. He admitted arranging for the delivery of approximately $2,450 to Maldivian Ali Jaleel, one of the suicide bombers responsible for the May 27, 2009 attack on Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) headquarters in Lahore which killed 30 people and injured 300 more. The government said at the time that the attack, believed to have been carried out by Jaleel and two other people, was in apparent revenge for an army offensive against Taliban militants in the country’s northwestern Swat region. Khan also admitted to providing advice and financial assistance to Jaleel’s wives after the bombing, “while knowing that providing such assistance would hinder and prevent the apprehension of Jaleel’s wives and others who may have helped in the attack,” prosecutors said. “With today’s sentence, the court held the defendant accountable and made it clear that no community should be subjected to the dangers posed by those seeking to assist violent extremists whether here or abroad,” said Acting US Attorney Billy Williams.